This book traces and summarizes the author's theoretical insights and empirical findings in the field of foreign language education. The volume explores themes such as individual differences in L1 ability and their connection to L2 aptitude and L2 achievement, L2 anxiety as an affective or cognitive variable, and the relationship between L1 and L2…

In the UK there is much concern about the educational progress of children from areas of significant social disadvantage entering primary school with impoverished language skills. These children are not routinely referred to speech and language therapy services and therefore education practitioners in schools deliver intervention to facilitate…

The relationship between language and executive function (EF) and their development in children have been the focus of recent debate and are of theoretical and clinical importance. Exploration of these functions in children with a peripheral hearing loss has the potential to be informative from both perspectives. This study compared the EF and…

Discusses the development of a language aptitude test designed to help select students to study German. Four areas of assessment are memory ability, ability to deal with stress and intonation patterns, inductive reasoning ability, and ability to recognize grammatical case. (EKN)

Starting with H.W. Seliger's distinction between second language learning strategies (abstract cognitive functions used to acquire knowledge) and learning tactics (activities learner uses to acquire language), presents the most important tactics and comments on which learner characteristics and teaching methods take advantage of them. Tactics…

Provides a general overview of factors affecting foreign language learning, and discusses how they are related to one another. (EKN)

Designed to measure children's receptive and expressive language competence, this 57-item instrument inventories children's performance in the following eight language subareas: motor functions, memory functions, visual functions, tactile-kinesthetic functions, vocal functions, auditory functions, following directions, and language concepts. (This…

American incompetence in second language skills can be remedied by training academically gifted children as true bilinguals in languages widely used and badly needed for business and political interactions in an increasingly interdependent world. Those identified as gifted, who also exhibit the characteristics of successful second language…

This evaluation package contains two model tests, one for the Alberta (Canada) French 20 course (intermediate 4/5) and one for French 30 (intermediate 5/6). The tests were designed for holistic evaluation of high school students' language performance based on an experiential/communicative approach. They allow teachers to obtain a sampling of…

The Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (H-NTLA) (Hiskey, 1966) has been regarded by reviewers as one of the best instruments for assessing the learning abilities of hearing-impaired children. However, there has been a paucity of research on the validity of this test. Further, there is no established test-retest reliability, and questions…

Discusses the administration of the Test di Attitudine Linguistica per Bambini (TALB) to students 7-9 years of age. Correlations between the TALB and achievement tests administered at the end of the course were very high. It is concluded that aptitude is a main factor in successful learning of a second language. (16 references) (LET)

Presents results of a study of six kinds of linguistic education software. Discusses treatment of language as an object rather than as a means of communication. Reports that the software promotes reflection on language and metalanguage awareness in a social and educational context by stimulating children's interest in playing with language. (DK)

One population at risk of academic failure comprises students who are of average ability, but who score significantly higher in nonverbal aptitude than verbal aptitude. Careful identification and instructional intervention can help these students to perform better. The findings of two studies are presented. The first study was conducted in 1964…

Examines attitudes of first-year Michigan State University students about the importance of foreign language (FL) study, focusing on possible differences according to measured abilities to use the English language, amount of success in previous high school FL study, sex, racial/ethnic heritage, major, and anticipated college-level FL study. (LB)

This paper discusses the role of input as one of the universals in second language acquisition theory. Considerations include how language instructors can best organize and present input and when certain kinds of input are more important. A self-administered program evaluation exercise using relevant theoretical and methodological contributions…